1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to containers usable to hold xerographic development toner.
2. Description of Related Art
Photocopier development devices employ toner containers to supply development toner to a substrate on which a latent image has been formed. Toner containers take a number of forms, including cartridges and bottles. Both toner cartridges and toner bottles have dispensing openings through which the toner is dispensed into one or more toner development stations. In some instances, the toner bottles and cartridges are provided with shutters usable to open and close the dispensing openings. The shutters, which are located in shutter assemblies attached to the toner containers, are designed to be opened after the toner containers are properly inserted into a toner development receptacle or station. Some shutter assemblies are provided with a lockout mechanism portion located on one side of the assembly to prevent the shutters from being opened unless and until the toner cartridge is properly placed in the appropriate toner development compartment, receptacle or station, which will be referred to collectively as a toner compartment.
Color photocopying machines have provision for a number of toner bottles of different color toners, such as, for example, the three subtractive chromatic primary colors of cyan, yellow and magenta, and the achromatic color black. A color photocopier typically has four toner container compartments, each with a toner development station and provision for accepting a corresponding color toner container.
Toner containers which have a shutter lockout mechanism may be designed so that the lockout mechanism mates with a corresponding shutter lockout mechanism element associated with the toner compartment, so that only a toner bottle storing a particularly colored toner will properly fit into that corresponding color toner compartment. For example, the toner container shutter lockout mechanism of a cyan toner compartment is designed to permit only a cyan toner container with a cyan shutter lockout mechanism to properly fit into the cyan toner compartment. A cyan shutter lockout mechanism is designed and configured to prevent non-cyan toner containers from properly fitting into the cyan color compartment.
One known toner container which has a shutter lockout mechanism has a shutter assembly with a single-sided shutter lockout mechanism portion located adjacent one end of the container. When a shutter assembly with a single-sided shutter lockout mechanism portion is assembled to this type of toner container, the shutter assembly sometimes is inadvertently assembled in a reverse orientation, i.e., rotated 180 degrees from its proper orientation. Accordingly, a toner container with a single-sided shutter assembly lockout mechanism portion can be designated as orientation-dependent. The lockout mechanism portion of shutter-orientation-dependent toner containers, in which the shutter assembly has been mis-oriented when assembled will not work properly, because such a toner container will still fit into any of the provided toner compartments and the shutter can be opened despite the presence of the mis-oriented shutter lockout mechanism. In other words, unless an orientation-dependent toner container with a mis-oriented shutter lockout mechanism, for example a cyan color toner container, is matched with the corresponding color, e.g., cyan toner compartment, the wrong color toner may be supplied to the cyan color compartment.
This invention provides an orientation-independent shutter lockout mechanism usable with toner containers.
This invention separately provides a dual-sided shutter lockout mechanism usable with toner containers.
In various exemplary embodiments of the orientation-independent shutter lockout mechanism according to this invention, the orientation-independent shutter lockout mechanism includes a shutter assembly having a plurality of shutter lockout mechanisms. In various exemplary embodiments, the shutter assembly according to this invention is formed adding a second shutter lockout mechanism portion to the opposite side of the shutter assembly from the side of the shutter assembly which has a first shutter lockout mechanism portion, so that both sides of the toner container shutter assembly have a shutter lockout mechanism. This double lock-out shutter mechanism portion assembly feature results in a shutter assembly that is orientation-independent, and thus reduces the chance of the shutter assembly being inserted into a toner container incorrectly, and reduces the chance that the wrong color toner will be added to a toner development compartment.
These and other features and advantages of this invention are described in, or are apparent from, the following detailed description of various exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods according to this invention.